So you think you've got the perfect plan to get yourself some nice fraudulent compensation? Well so did all these people:


Don't rely on your status to get you through your fake claim as former police officer Jonathan Lewis, aged 49, from Market Deeping found out when he tried to sue Peterborough City Council for £22,000 for falling over some debris next to a lamppost. A brief investigation by the council found witnesses that had seen Mr Lewis fall over drunk in his own driveway and sustain the injury he was blaming the council for.
Penalty: Jailed for nine months.

Don't leave evidence in the hands of others. A rather silly mistake by David Cairns, aged 44, of Platt Bridge who tried to sue Wigan Council for an injury he sustained whilst playing indoor football at a JJB Soccer Dome. He stated that he hurt himself on a hole in local roads but had filled in the JJB centre's accident book which was found by investigating council officials. Cairns had remembered to get a fake witness in the form of Anthony Purves, aged 32, of Golborne who lied under oath to get a share of the winnings (£9,250) though.
Penalty: Cairns - jailed for nine months. Purves - jailed for six months.

Don't push your luck. Tony Bailey, aged 31, from Martock in Dorset tried to claim £1million in compensation for exaggerated back injuries. He got his partner, Samantha Beckey, aged 26, to back up his injury claims and even push him around in a wheelchair. Permanent confinement to a wheelchair is most likely going to have lots of medical evidence ... evidence which Mr Bailey obviously would not be able to get. Of course, claiming extreme injuries is foolish enough if you're going to try a fraudulent claim but thinking that the insurer's investigative team would not notice you walking, driving and holidaying is just pure idiocy. If you're faking an injury, you have to keep up the facade.
Penalty: Tony Bailey - jailed for three and a half years. Samantha Beckey was given a suspended two-year sentence.

Don't assume that the details you give will not be checked. I know the majority of civil servants (a title where neither of the words are accurately descriptive) are completely incompetent but, as the farmers of County Antrim found out, most of them can count. Out of 199 farmers who claimed compensation for sheep that had to be culled, 106 claimed for more sheep than they original had and 17 never had any sheep to being with. It turned out that many of the farmers had been claiming annual premiums on the non-existent sheep, unravelling extra fraud through greed.
Penalty: No jail time due to loopholes in the law, but the money to be paid back exceeds £100,000 for starters.

Fraud charges might not be your only drawback. Quoted as having come up with the idea after seeing claiming adverts on TV, Gordon Thomson, aged 32, from Plymouth, broke his girlfriend's leg in an attempt to claim compensation from the local council. His girlfriend, Elizabeth Hingston aged 28, downed a bottle of Pernod before Thomson placed her leg between two bricks and jumped on it. She had to have a pin inserted and was on crutches for six months. Thomson reported the incident to Plymouth City Council saying she had been struck by falling masonry from a council maintained wall. The scam was uncovered as, during a drugs raid on Thomson's house, police found that he had filmed himself breaking her leg on his mobile phone.
Penalty: Despite the huge injuries inflicted Thomson only got three years for bodily harm. Ms Hingston, despite having come up with the idea herself was not charged as they had not yet filed a claim.

Keep it simple. Unlike Anita Mansfield who set her sights on an £800,000 dream home which drove her to fraudulently take out life insurance on an old woman she knew and then kill both her and the elderly lady's adopted daughter. The stuff of TV-fiction it may seem but poor planning and a terrible cover-up job led to Ms Mansfield and her two accomplices (Michael Millcroft and an unnamed 15-year-old boy) being arrested the very next day.
Penalty: Mansfield - minimum of 30 years to be served. Millcroft - minimum of 25 years to be served.

The deeper the pockets the easier the scam? Over several years farmers in South Armagh had claimed millions in compensation for animals they say died as a result of low flying army helicopters. The problem was only noticed when some bright spark at the MoD noticed that the same cow (each has an identity number) had apparently died six times. Due to pressure from locals almost everyone was in on the scam from the farmers to the vets. Estimates are that the MoD paid out over £10million before realising the fraud.
Penalty: The £4million court trial didn't help much as the jury let everyone off.

Keep it in the family! The Sharif family who lived around Preston and Blackburn grabbed almost £3million before being caught. One and a half million from public funds for Zulfiqar Sharif, aged 28, who family claimed had been left in a vegetative state after a knife attack - he was later filmed working out at a gym. Mohammed Sharif, 58, faked six road accidents in which the injured victims were family members such as his daughters Yasmin Sarwar, aged 25, and Parveen Sharif, aged 30, with other family members under false names providing the witness reports.
Penalty: Mohammed Sharif would have received eight years but he died of a heart attack during the trial. Nine other family members got a total of 22 years.

If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie, lie again. After the discovery by Knowsley Council that Sandra Stevenson, aged 43 from Kirkby, had actually injured her back moving her own furniture as opposed to her claim that she tripped over an uncovered drain, she didn't give up! This plucky girl tried to convince her accusers that the hospital report that she filled in after her injury which stated it happened moving a "bed" was a misunderstanding - she had actually said "ged" which she stated was slang for "grid" i.e. the drain cover. Bravo Sandra.
Penalty: Four months imprisonment.